Drivers & Streaming Video Quality

[pri3stess]

Do display drivers affect the performance of streaming videos?

I am using an older model laptop (HP Pavillion zd5617wm with Windows XP Professional) with RAEDON IGP 345m video card with ATI driver from HP's support website.

The ATI driver I currently have match my machine as listed on HP's driver download web site.

I use Netflix, and watch other programs from various web sites, and have attached this laptop to my television using an S-video cable.

I used to get excellent quality while streaming videos, however, I reformatted my machine and reinstalled the OS and all the drivers. Before I reformatted, I was running Windows XP Home Edition, and I am not certain of what display driver was being used.

After reformatting and installing Windows XP Pro, along with the drivers from HP's support web site that match my machine, the quality and performance of my streaming videos has degraded significantly.

My Internet connection has not changed or been modified in anyway. I am not having problems downloading streaming media. It always downloads faster than playback, however, the image is of very poor quality. It is much more blocky/pixelated, and horizontal lines fluctuate across the images.

The quality/performance of the video is the same on both the computer monitor as well as the television to which it is attached. I have tried various screen resolutions, and have experienced no improvements.

Does anyone have any idea what might have happened, or what I might have lost during the reformatting process to degrade my streaming video quality?

Thanks in advance!

pri3stess

 

[pri3stess]

Yes. I have Microsoft Silverlight installed now, as well. Netflix requires it.

 

[tigsounds]

Do display drivers affect the performance of streaming videos?

I am using an older model laptop (HP Pavillion zd5617wm with Windows XP Professional) with RAEDON IGP 345m video card with ATI driver from HP's support website.

<snip>

Do you have the ATI Catalyst® Control Center installed?

If so, open it and go through it's settings. Most of them will show an example of the effect you are adjusting.

The 3D settings will have a profound effect as they deal with such things as anti-aliasing, filters, mipmap details and more.

I went to the ATI support pages, and they do not recognize your card due to the "345m" portion of your card model number. You can go here to verify the model...

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/HowtoidentifythemodelofanATIgraphicscard.aspx

With information obtained, you may be able to get a better driver.

 

[pri3stess]

Thanks a bunch, Tigsounds. I'll give this a try tomorrow and see if there's any change.

I'll post an update after.

 

[tigsounds]

Maybe it's just a bum Codec. Get better(?) ones here:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Mega_Codec_Pack.htm

 

[pri3stess]

Unresolved.